It is advisable for a sports writer to pick his target judiciously and back into the question when bringing a negative to the attention of a ballplayer.
This had to be the middle of May in 1998. The target was Paul Molitor, one of the most-composed ballplayers (and now managers) you could hope to deal with. So, I went directly to the issue with a statement that was roughly this:
"Paul, you haven't been driving in many runs … three in over three weeks.''
Molitor looked at me, smiled and said: "I was wondering when somebody was going to ask me about that.''
Runs batted in are a meaningless number to baseball's nuevo statistical crowd, but in 1998, they meant something to Molitor. Even approaching 42 and in his final season, he saw the value in knocking in a run once in a while.
I went to Baseball Reference (where else?) to find the actual details, and from April 18 to May 14 of the '98 season, Molitor had three RBI in 22 games..
I know this will come as a shock to Patrick+ readers, but Molitor going through an RBI dearth in his final season is not the point of the anecdote. The point was Molitor's response when it was mentioned.
I remembered Mollie's answer when hearing Kris Atteberry on the Twins' postgame radio show on Sunday going through some footnotes that included this: